Fixing Awful Meetings Is The Best Way To Increase Productivity

Greg
Satell is an internationally recognized authority on
digital strategy and innovation who consults and speaks in
the areas of digital innovation, innovation management,
digital marketing and publishing, as well as offshore web
and app development.

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Every manager wants to boost productivity. We invest
billions in new machinery and software every year, not to mention
a vast array of consultants, management books and other tools
designed to increase the efficiency of our efforts.

Yet I’ve found that the most effective way to get results is not
to dream up the unimaginably brilliant, but to put a stop to
doing the unbelievably stupid and what most companies
do horribly is meetings.

A recent Wall Street
Journal article points out that CEO’s spend
over 30% of their time in ineffective meetings.
A wider survey, covering decades of research,
came to even more disturbing conclusions (including that 40% of
managers fall asleep in meetings). Clearly, making
meetings more effective is one of the best ways to increase
overall productivity.

Great Meetings Start Before Anybody Gets in the
Room

Every meeting has some topic to be discussed and, for the
attendees to participate effectively, they need to be informed
about that subject. Usually, this is done through a PowerPoint
presentation along with supplementary documents.

Unfortunately, an inordinate amount of time is often dedicated to
going over documents. Finer points are explained, questions are
asked, calls for more information are made before the matter can
be dealt with effectively. Often, an hour goes by before the
subject at hand can be broached and by then, a second meeting has
to be set up.

So the first principle is that everybody needs to come prepared.
Documents should be sent 24 hours in advance (or at least one
hour before if the meeting was called with less than 24 hours
notice). Questions about documents can then be answers and
any supplementary information can be prepared before everybody
gets into the conference room.

Meetings are an opportunity to discuss issues of import, not an
improvised study hall where people sit around a table reading.

Build a Clear Sense of Purpose

A meeting’s purpose should always be clear. There should be a
prepared agenda complete with topics to be addressed along with
who is responsible for leading each discussion. This is
absolutely essential if the meeting is to achieve anything.
It should be common sense.

Unfortunately, the research cited above suggests that from one
third to one half of meetings have no such agenda, even though
that a full 73% stated that such an agenda is “essential” for
meetings to be effective. My corporate experience is very
much in line with these findings.

This is a simple matter of a breakdown in discipline. There are
no tricks or techniques that can help you form an agenda for
meetings. You either do it or you don’t.

Following Up With Contact Reports

One thing that I have found disturbingly rare in meetings I have
attended is contact reports, which include actions that were
decided upon, deadlines for their completion and who is
responsible. Some organizations go further by using
a RASCI system (Responsible, Approval,
Support, Consult and Inform) to assign multiple roles.

These reports are usually prepared by the most junior person
attending the meeting and are approved by the person who called
it. One ancillary benefit of doing it this way is that it is an
incentive for senior people to include junior executives more
often, giving them exposure to high level decision making and
adding transparency to the organization.

As a rule, contact reports should be sent out to all attendees
within 24 hours of the meeting. For all subsequent meetings on
the same topic, the contact report can serve as a basic agenda.

The Management Imperative

When I’ve been called upon to turn around failing enterprises, I
learned that meeting structure is a good place to start.
People are usually fully aware of the time wasted in
pointless meetings and improving them not only drives
productivity, it increases moral. After all, few things affect
everyday working life to the extent that meetings do.

In a broader sense, it is a managers imperative to make meetings
worthwhile. They are not an opportunity for you to show
your staff what a “good guy” you are or simply to get some
facetime, they are a forum for getting things done.
Anything else, destroys the basic fabric of the
organization.

So get serious about meetings. Insist on agendas, contact
reports and that everybody comes prepared. While you’re at
it, ban cell phones and e-mail for good measure and try to limit
them to 45 minutes (the length of an average attention span).